Method and computer program product for order preserving symbol based encryption

ABSTRACT

Techniques for sorting encrypted data within a software as a service (SaaS) environment. Data is encrypted on a per symbol basis with a symbol based encryption module. Sort and search functionality preserving encryption that allows other modules to sort tokens and to search for tokens is provided. Encrypted tokens that have been encrypted by the symbol based encryption module are stored in a database. Access to the encrypted tokens is provided through the SaaS environment.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This continuation application is related to, and claims priority to,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/579,934, with a filing date of Nov.4, 2012, which is related to, and claims priority to, national phaseapplication of PCT Patent Application No. PCT/IB11/50726, with aninternational filing date of Feb. 22, 2011, which is related to, andclaims priority to, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/307,079,with a filing date of Feb. 23, 2010, all of which the entire contentsare incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the invention relate generally to the field of dataencryption, and more particularly, to order preserving encryption andfor an encryption dictionary that facilitates order preservingencryption.

BACKGROUND

Currently there are no known solutions that enable sorting of encrypteddata, and encryption is usually done on the data being stored to astorage area or on information transmitted between two parties. In bothcases before the data is process by the application it must bedecrypted.

All known existing solutions to secure data sent to a Software as aService (SaaS) application, secure the pipe between user (end-user orthe enterprise network) and the service, and rely on the securityprovided by the SaaS vendor. However, the SaaS user does not control hissensitive data, and in case there is leakage of information from theSaaS provider, confidential data may be exposed. Furthermore, standardencryption solutions do not enable the SaaS application to process theencrypted data content, i.e. to perform operations like search, sort,making reports on the encrypted data content.

There is a need to enable the usage of external resources such as SaaSapplications and cloud computing services while ensuring theconfidentiality and privacy of the user/corporate sensitive data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method for generating an encryption dictionary, the method comprises:generating a random value for each plaintext symbol of multipleplaintext symbols; and calculating a random token for each plaintextsymbol based on a random value of the plaintext symbol and on randomvalues of other plaintext symbols that have a lower lexicographic valuethan the plaintext symbol; wherein the calculating comprises applying amonotonic function; wherein the encryption dictionary comprises amapping between the multiple plaintext symbols and random token of themultiple plaintext symbols.

A method for processing symbols by a first computerized entity, themethod comprising: receiving, by a first computerized entity and over acommunication network, text that comprises multiple random tokens and aplurality of plaintext symbols; wherein the multiple random tokens aregenerated by a second computerized entity; wherein a value of eachrandom token that represents a plaintext symbol is responsive to valuesof random tokens that represents plaintext symbols that have a lowerlexicographic value than the plaintext symbol; and processing the textby the first computerized entity.

A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions for:generating a random value for each plaintext symbol of multipleplaintext symbols; and calculating, using a monotonic function, a randomtoken for each plaintext symbol based on a random value of the plaintextsymbol and on random values of other plaintext symbols that have a lowerlexicographic value than the plaintext symbol; wherein the encryptiondictionary comprises a mapping between the multiple plaintext symbolsand random values of the multiple plaintext symbols.

A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions for:receiving, by a first computerized entity and over a communicationnetwork, text that comprises multiple random tokens and a plurality ofplaintext symbols; wherein the multiple random tokens are generated by asecond computerized entity; wherein a value of each random token thatrepresents a plaintext symbol is responsive to values of random tokensthat represents plaintext symbols that have a lower lexicographic valuethan the plaintext symbol; and processing the text by the firstcomputerized entity.

A system, comprising a first computerized entity for: receiving over acommunication network, text that comprises multiple random tokens and aplurality of plaintext symbols; wherein the multiple random tokens aregenerated by a second computerized entity; wherein a value of eachrandom token that represents a plaintext symbol is responsive to valuesof random tokens that represents plaintext symbols that have a lowerlexicographic value than the plaintext symbol; and processing the textby the first computerized entity.

A system comprising a second computerized entity for generating a randomvalue for each plaintext symbol of multiple plaintext symbols; andcalculating a random token for each plaintext symbol based on a randomvalue of the plaintext symbol and on random values of other plaintextsymbols that have a lower lexicographic value than the plaintext symbol;wherein the calculating comprises applying a monotonic function; whereinthe encryption dictionary comprises a mapping between the multipleplaintext symbols and random token of the multiple plaintext symbols.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly pointed outand distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification.The invention, however, both as to organization and method of operation,together with objects, features, and advantages thereof, may best beunderstood by reference to the following detailed description when readwith the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a security module according to an embodiment of theinvention;

FIGS. 2-7 illustrate various methods according to various embodiments ofthe invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates a security module internal structure according to anembodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 9-11 illustrate security modules and their deployment optionsaccording to various embodiments of the invention; and

FIGS. 12-13 illustrate a graphic user interface (GUI) of a SaaSapplication presenting a screen with a plain text data and thecorresponding encrypted data according to an embodiment of theinvention.

It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration,elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale.For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggeratedrelative to other elements for clarity. Further, where consideredappropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures toindicate corresponding or analogous elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that thepresent invention may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known methods, procedures, and components have notbeen described in detail so as not to obscure the present invention.

Any combination of any of the claims of this applications can beprovided.

There is provided an appliance, a system, a method and correspondingsoftware components for symbol based encryption of data. According tosome embodiments of the present invention, there may be provided asymbol based encryption module (hereinafter—encryption module) adaptedto encrypt data (such as data included in a file), such as a document oran application request/transaction, on a per symbol basis.

The term symbol may be defined as a word, a phrase, a number or any setof characters including alphanumeric characters in any known language.The terms symbol and data elements shall be interchangeable through thisapplication.

The terms data file and document shall be interchangeable throughoutthis application.

The encryption dictionary can be a data structure of any format.

The terms plaintext, un-encrypted, decrypted and non-encrypted shall beinterchangeable throughout this application.

The term “random token” may mean a data element that is generated by aprocess that includes at least one stage that is random orpseudo-random.

According to an embodiment of the invention there is provided a sort andsearch preserved encryption module that may provide sort and searchpreserving encryption that allows other modules (or other computerizedentities) that may not be aware of the plaintext symbols to sort randomtokens, to search for random tokens and even to perform both sort andsearch processes. The terms “search and sort preserve encryption” and“order preserve encryption” shall be interchangeable throughout thisapplication.

The computerized entities and methods illustrated below can be used invarious environments and operate in various scenarios. For example, whena corporate is using a Customer Relationships Management (CRM) in theSoftware as a service (SaaS) model such as salesforce.com, the data sentto salesforce.com servers may contain sensitive data elements. Acomputerized entity can understand the salesforce.com applicationprotocol, detect the sensitive data elements in an HTTP requests sent tothe salesforce.com application, and encrypt these elements utilizing asymbol based encryption that can be a sort and search preservedencryption.

Thus, the HTTP request structure remains the same, and only thesensitive data elements are replaced with the encrypted elements, and asa result, the salesforce.com application can process the request as anormal request. The sort and search preserved encryption enables thesalesforce.com application to search within the encrypted data elements(e.g. to search for a contact given its name), to sort the encrypteddata elements (e.g. to sort the contacts names in a lexicographicorder), and to prepare reports using the encrypted data elements, whilethe values of the sensitive data elements processed and stored in thesalesforce.com databases encrypted. Thus, even if there is a leakage ofinformation from the salesforce.com server-side applications anddatabases, there is no exposure of corporate sensitive information.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, when the user isretrieving a web page that contains an encrypted element, a decryptionmodule that may reverse the operation of an encryption module may detectthe encrypted element(s) in the web page returned by the web-application(e.g. the SaaS application) and may decrypt them. Thus the web pagereceived by the user/user-browser may contain a non-encrypted/plain-textresponse page, and all the information presented to the user may be inplaintext.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, a userrequesting to export the data stored in a web-application to any textbased file (e.g. a word document, an excel document) or even a PDF file,the returned file may be processed by the device(s) in order to detectthe sensitive elements in the text file and optionally replace them bytheir plaintext value. Thus, the exported file may be in plaintext.

In most of the cases textual sensitive data elements are not used forany numeric analysis, and as a result, their encryption, doesn't affectthe SaaS application functionality, since the encryption applied tothese textual sensitive data elements preserve the ability of the SaaSapplication to search of sort the encrypted data elements. For example,in a CRM application, the name of customer who made the call is notimportant to the analysis of the call center performance, and thus thefact that it is encrypted doesn't prevent any analysis done by the CRMapplication. In contrast, the call duration, and the waiting time arenecessary for the numeric analysis of the call center performance andthey of course are not encrypted since they are not considered assensitive data elements (according to the regulations).

In order to preserve the functionality of the application, the suggestedencryption scheme encrypts the sensitive elements that don't affect theapplication functionality, and the encryption of sensitive data elementsis done in a transparent way from the SaaS application perspective, inorder to prevent any need for changes in the SaaS application. Toachieve this goal, the device encrypts each word/phrase in a dataelement by itself and in a way that preserves the search and sortfunctionality of the SaaS application on each data element(word/phrase).

To preserve the ability to sort the encrypted values and to searchwithin the encrypted data elements, the encryption scheme replaces eachdata element with a random token in such a way that the lexicographicorder between the random tokens preserve the order e.g. thelexicographic order between the plaintext data elements they represent.

According to various embodiments of the invention the encryption modulecan define a space of possible random tokens, and generate random tokenswithin that space.

The space of possible random tokens can be of any size. The size of thisspace can be determined according to the number of possible differentplaintext data elements to be encrypted. This space can be span byrandom tokens of a length that can be 64 bits, 128 bits or any othersize.

Based on the size of the random tokens the encryption module generatesrandom tokens for the plaintext symbols so that the order, e.g. thelexicographic order, between the random tokens generated for the dataelements in the encryption dictionary preserves the order between theclear-text data elements they represent. This mapping between the randomtokens generated and their corresponding clear-text data elements may bestored in a hash table in memory and, additionally or alternatively, ina database.

Each plaintext symbol can be mapped to one or more random tokens.

When the encryption module needs to encrypt a data element, theencryption module can execute the following stages:

-   -   a. It searches the encryption dictionary to see if there is        already a random token associated for this data element.    -   b. If there is a random token then the encryption module uses        the random token.    -   c. If there are few random tokens for that data element the        encryption module can select one of them, in a random or other        manner.    -   d. If there is no random token for this data element then the        encryption module generates a new random token for the new data        element and updates the encryption dictionary accordingly.    -   e. The new random token can be generated in the following        way: (i) the encryption module searches the encryption        dictionary for a data element that is just before the new data        elements and another data element that is just after it        according to the lexicographic order of the data elements, (ii)        the encryption module extracts the random tokens that correspond        to these existing data elements and according to the distance of        the new data element (of the random token or random value        assigned to the to the data elements) before and after it the        encryption engine generates a random token that is between the        random tokens of these elements, and (iii) the newly generated        random token is used to encrypt (i.e. replace) the data element        and is stored in the encryption dictionary (and may also be        stored in one other database).

It is noted that since a random token is associated with each plaintextelement the search capability is preserved.

It is noted that the encryption module requires a definition of thesorting method. In case of textual (alpha-numeric) data elements thelexicographic sorting is assumed as default. However, it is noted thatthe encryption module can generate random tokens that preserve ordersthat differ from lexicographic orders. Thus, if a set of data elementsare orders according to a certain order (and are associated withascending or descending values) than any of the mentioned below methodscan be applied to provide an order preserving encryption.

According to an embodiment of the invention the first letter of a dataelement can remain non-encrypted (while other letters are encrypted) sothat an application that receives the random tokens can still be able topresent all the data elements starting with A, B, C . . . Z.

According to an embodiment of the invention multiple random tokens canbe assigned to a single plaintext data element. Such an allocation canbe provided for various reasons such as but not limited to a need tosmooth (or flatten) an uneven distribution of data elements. This mayoccur if there are popular data elements (i.e. data elements that appearfrequently in the plaintext).

When multiple random tokens are generated for a single plaintext dataelement these random tokens can be consecutive (from lexicographic orderperspective), but from the random token perspective there may be no signthat these random tokens correspond to the same plaintext element.

When searching for a plaintext data element that was encrypted using“multiple substitutions” the encryption module should search for all therandom tokens that correspond to the plaintext data element, using an ORoperation.

According to an embodiment of the invention the number of random tokensper plaintext data element can be stored in multiple manners. Forexample, the number of random tokens of plaintext data elements thathave multiple random tokens are stored in the encryption dictionary orin another data structure. Yet according to an embodiment of theinvention separate encryption dictionary can be allocated for plaintextdata elements that have multiple random tokens.

In order to define the space of the random tokens the size and number ofthe possible data elements (i.e. the possible number of first names,last names, etc.) should be estimated. If an exact estimate is notprovided than at least a gross estimate can be provided—such a grossestimate can provide an order of magnitude (i.e. thousands, tens ofthousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions etc.).

The data elements to be encrypted are usually of a known type. They areusually fields in a structured text that are known in advance. It isnoted that the sensitivity detection mechanism can detect sensitive dataelements in a non structured data in a mechanism similar to a DLPmechanism. Non-limiting examples of such fields can include a name of aperson, a name of a company, a bank account number, a credit card numberand the like. The size of the space of the plaintext elements to beencrypted may be finite and as a result tokenization can be applied.

For example, if the data elements to be encrypted are names of peoplethen a reference to the number of different names can be found, forexample in http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/. For example, in orderto provide 90% coverage of first and last names in the United States ofAmerica there is a need to allocate 4,250 female names, 1,250 male namesand 88,000 last names. In this case 20 bits (spanning a space that isabout million possibilities) may be enough to cover the space of firstand last names of people, and we can use these names to build ourinitial dictionary of random tokens.

If, for example, the characteristics of the data elements to beencrypted are unknown (e.g. names of projects or companies), theencryption module can generate an (initial) encryption dictionary thatinclude multiple combinations of letters. For example, such an initialencryption dictionary can include all tuples of three or four charactersof the alphabet.

For a given space estimation, the random token should be much larger(for example—at least 40 bits larger) than the size of the plaintextelements to be encrypted. Thus, if the estimated space of the plaintextelements in 20 bit (around one billion) then the random tokens shouldbe, for example, 64 bits long.

In the generation of the initial mapping the encryption module can usethe output of a random or pseudo random generator. The pseudo randomgenerator can be an output of an AES encryption algorithm in CBC mode orin CTR mode, where the key and the IV are randomly generated using ahash function on some data gathered.

The encryption module may sort the plaintext data elements in theinitial encryption dictionary, and processes them one by one accordingto their order.

For each plaintext data element the encryption module generates at least40 bit random value (random number) and translates it to an integernumber. Then the encryption engine adds the random values associatedwith all the plaintext elements till that data element (including therandom value generated for that data element) to generate the randomtoken for that data element. For example:

-   -   a. For the first plaintext data element the random token is the        number generated for this plaintext data element.    -   b. For the second plaintext data element the random token is the        sum of the random values generated for the first two plaintext        data elements.    -   c. For the third plaintext data element the random token is the        sum of the random values generated for the first three plaintext        data elements.    -   d. For the N plaintext data element the random token is the sum        of the random values generated for the first N plaintext data        elements.

According to an embodiment of the invention the encryption dictionarycan be stored in one or more data structures, can be at least partiallyreplicated, can be stored in a hierarchical memory data structures, canbe at least partially stored in cache, and the like. Once a new randomtoken is generated it can be stored in one data structure and then beupdated to another data structure if necessary.

The random token generated by the encryption module can be encodedutilizing hex encoding using the first 16 alphabetic charactersaccording to their lexicographic order so that each 4 bits of anumerical value of the random token are represented by a letter betweena and p.

These letters can be converted to upper case letters and lower caseletters by using letter case information representative of the types ofletters (lower case or upper case) of the plaintext data element that isbeing encrypted.

Alternatively, each 5 bits of a numerical value of the random token arerepresented by an Armenian letter (having 36 letters). This encoding canalso preserve the letter case of the original data element.

Case preserving encoding allows an application (such as a SaaSapplication) to choose case sensitivity of sorting and searchingaccording to its needs, transparently of encryption.

In many cases such as a search operation the operation is required to becase insensitive, and as a result the search engine is translating boththe data to be searched and the search term into lower case before thesearch operation. As a result, the suggested encryption also translatesthe plaintext data elements, and the search terms into lower case,before encrypting them. This ensures that the search done on the randomtokens will be case insensitive.

In order that when a data element is decrypted the decryption modulewill preserve the case sensitivity of the original data element, theencryption algorithm generates letter case information that indicateswhich character is upper case and which is lower case.

Before the encryption module encrypts a plaintext data element, it maygenerate a bit vector that may include 1 for an upper case lettercharacters and 0 for lower case letter character, digits and additionalcharacters (or use any other values that differ from each other). Thenthe encryption module can translate the data element into lower casecharacters (if applicable) and generates a random token for the dataelement as described above.

The encoding of the random token may be done utilizing an encoding (suchas a hex encoding) using the first 16 alphabetic characters according totheir lexicographic order (i.e. 0 will be encoded by the lowestcharacter in the alphabet). The characters used are lower case a-pcharacters. but can be any set of 16 characters that are orderedlexicographically and have upper case and lower case representation.

Then the encryption module may convert the characters to upper caseusing the bit vector that was generated before the data elementencryption. Thus, for each 1 bit in the bit vector the correspondingcharacter is translated to upper case.

For example, if the word was “David” the first character in the encodedrandom token will be upper case and all the rest of the characters willbe lower case.

When a decryption module decrypts a random token into the plaintext dataelement it reverses the above process. Before the decryption theencryption module generates a bit vector that contains 1 for an uppercase letter characters and 0 for lower case letter character (or use anyother values that differ from each other).

Then it translates the random token into lower case characters, andsearches for the plaintext data element in the encryption dictionary.The plaintext data element found is in lower case.

Then the decryption module converts the characters to upper case usingthe bit vector that was generated before the random token decryption.Thus, for each 1 bit in the bit vector the corresponding character inthe plain-text data element is translated to upper case.

In cases where the initial encryption dictionary (that may be used forthe sort preserved encryption) is based on all the tuples (i.e. all thepermutations) of 4 characters of the alpha-Beth, than when the userenter the first characters of the word for which it is required toprovide auto-complete the device can look for these character string inthe internal dictionary as well as for the next tuple with the samenumber of characters, and find their random tokens.

For example:

-   -   a. When the user enters the letter C we would look for the        encryption of C and D.    -   b. When the user enters the letters CA we would look for the        encryption of CA and CB.    -   c. When the user enters the letters CAR we would look for the        encryption of CAR and CAS.    -   d. When the user enters the letters CARL we would like for the        encryption of CARL and CARM.

In each of the above cases an application server (e.g. the SaaSapplication server) may be requested to bring all the values that aregreater or equal to the encryption of the string entered by the user andare smaller than the encryption of next string in the (lexicographic)order. Since the encryption is preserving the order this will bring allthe strings that start with the character entered by the user.

In case the username is composed from few elements separated by “.” or“-” then each element can be encrypted separately.

According to an embodiment of the invention emails (or other plaintextdata elements having a predefined format) can be encrypted in a formatpreserving manner.

In case the SaaS application is performing a format validation at theserver side, then an encryption scheme that preserves the data elementformat can be applied. However, if the format validation is done on theclient side, then the device can use any encryption scheme even if itdoesn't preserve the format in case using this encryption scheme can bemore secure and more efficient to implement.

For example, an email address is usually composed from two plaintextstrings that are separated by an at sign (@) (i.e.user-name@domain-name.com), the encryption module may encrypt theuser-name by itself and the domain name by itself, and recomposes thenew email address using the encrypted values of the user-name and thedomain-name.

Thus, an email address can be converted to an encrypted email addressthat includes two random tokens (RT(q) and RT(j)) that are separated byan at sign (for example RT(q)@RT(j)).

This preserves the structure of the email address, enables sorting ofencrypted email addresses, and ensures the confidentiality of both theuser name and the domain name.

Yet according to another embodiment of the invention an email addressthat includes two plaintext strings that are separated by an at sign isconverted to an encrypted email address that includes two random tokensthat may be separated by a symbol and are followed by an at sign,wherein the at sign is followed by a predefined domain name thatidentifies a computerized entity owned by the device, i.e. theenterprise that is arranged to assist in decrypting the encrypted emailaddress (RT(q).RT(j))@predefined domain name) and the email messagebody. This also enables the device to catch emails sent to the encryptedemail address.

The computerized entity may decrypt the encrypted email address and theemail message body or send it to a decryption module. After the email isdecrypted it (and the email message associated with it) are sent to thedestination defined by the email address.

If email addresses are encrypted according to one of these embodimentsthen the decryption module can search for expressions like (a)RT(q)@RT(j) (encrypted-value@encrypted-value), decrypt each of therandom tokens, and recomposes the email address using the plain-textvalues for the user-name and the domain-names, or (ii)RT(q).RT(j))@predefined domain name.

According to an embodiment of the invention different mapping betweenplaintext data elements and random tokens can be provided for differentusers, devices, applications, and the like.

According to an embodiment of the invention different encryptionpolicies and different encryption dictionaries can be used in differentcontexts.

For example, an encryption module (or different encryption modules) canapply a different encryption-policy (that define which data elementsshould be encrypted) for each SaaS application. Thus, for certainfunctionality the device will have to be familiar with the SaaSapplication protocol. (Note: The knowledge on the SaaS applicationprotocol will be gathered by an off-line process.)

In addition, a SaaS application may provide a very detailed API thatenables developers to develop their own applications on top of that SaaSapplication services. This APIs which defines the meaning and thesemantic of each parameter in that SaaS application, may enable toprepare a detailed policy for that SaaS application, and for eachapplication developed on top of it APIs since the device intercept thecalls to the APIs and will apply the privacy policy to the parametersaccording to the application security policy for the requested APIs.

According to an embodiment of the invention a device is provided. Thedevice can include the encryption module (and, additionally oralternatively a decryption module) and can act as a proxy or a reverseproxy between a SaaS application client (running usually in the end userbrowser) and a SaaS application server side, running on the SaaSprovider servers. As a proxy or a reverse proxy all (or a part) of thetraffic between the SaaS application client side and the SaaSapplication server side can be monitored (requests and responses).

The device can detect the application according to the domain name inthe request. According to the URL the device detects the request type,and according to the request type, it “knows” (per a predefineddefinition) what sensitive data elements that should be encrypted areincluded in the request.

Since the requests are usually HTTP request, which are using key-valuepairs, the device can easily detect the relevant parameters by theirnames, and replaced their value in the request with the encrypted value.In case it is a post request with a XML body, the device may use a XMLparser to query and extract the value of the sensitive data elements andreplace their plaintext value with the encrypted value. In case it is apost request with a JSON body, the device may use a JSON parser toextract the value of the sensitive data elements and replace theirplain-text value with the encrypted value. The device can handlerequests that their body is a combinations of key value pairs, XML andJSON, as well as other formats and detect in these requests thesensitive values.

In order to enable easy detection of the textual encrypted value in theresponse the device may add a prefix and a suffix to each encryptedelement (as will be explained later).

In case a textual search request is detected, the device may detect thetextual search text in the request, and the device applies the sameencryption to search terms in order to preserve the server or theapplication search functionality.

When the response is returning from the SaaS application, it is usuallya web page. In order to ease the detection of textual encryptedelements, each encrypted element has a unique prefix and suffix. Thedevice may be using this prefix and suffix to detect the textualencrypted elements in the web page and replace them with their plaintextvalues. The same apply to XML documents and JSON responses that returnedas a response and/or to textual files and/or to documents that aredownloaded from the SaaS provider server.

As explained above the device may function as a proxy or a reverse proxybetween the client side application running usually at the user'sbrowser and the application server side running on the SaaS providerservers. In case of a corporate it makes a lot of sense to position thedevice in the corporate network perimeter close to the firewall. Theadvantage of this position is that only users that work within theenterprise network can work with the application normally and any usersthat are not passing through the device will view only the encrypteddata elements. This enables the enterprise to audit the access to theapplication, and prevent any unauthorized access to the application fromoutside of the corporate network, since even if the user has somehow ausername and password to the application, he/she would see only therandom tokens and the sensitive data will not be exposed.

This topology may handle scenarios of an ex-employee that have left theorganization, but for some reason was not deleted from the SaaSapplication users list. This topology also handles the scenario wheresomehow a username and password of the application were revealed to anunauthorized user outside of the enterprise.

Another advantage of this topology is that the enterprise has fullcontrol on the device, and the device secret keys including theencryption dictionary remains with the enterprise. As explained abovethe device enables the corporate IT or the compliancy officer fullcontrol on the privacy policy enforced by the device.

In order to enable remote users to work properly with the SaaSapplication they will have in this topology to connect to the enterprisenetwork using SSL VPN, and work though the enterprise network.

This proxy can be implemented as software running on the end-user'sdesktop/laptop, to address to consumer market.

The device/appliance can be running Linux (as its Operating System).

On the Linux an Apache can run in proxy/reverse-proxy mode as aHTTP/HTTPS proxy server (utilizing the Apache mode ssl). The device canrun other proxies to support other protocols as well.

The encryption/decryption module can be running as an Apache module.

The appliance can have a web based GUI for various managementactivities.

The system or appliance may include a web based GUI will enable the userto define the privacy policy, and to manage the device secret key.

The device may have: (i) A secret key management GUI that will beavailable only to very minimal number of users; (ii) policy managementGUI that will be available to policy administrators; wherein for eachapplication supported by the device will have a dedicated GUI that willbe tailored to the specific application.

The policy screen will enable the policy administrator to define whichdata elements are sensitive data elements, and how to encrypt them (i.e.what encryption engine to use).

For example, a file that is attached to an email can be encrypted as oneentity to achieve additional security, and only the name of the fileshould be encrypted using the search and sort preserved encryptionscheme.

The illustrated devices and methods can provide to the deviceadministrator full control of the information that is sent out-side fromthe enterprise network e.g. to the SaaS provider (i.e. control what cango to the SaaS and what cannot), and minimize the exposure of enterpriseconfidential data, it can enforce the enterprise data privacy policy,and enable the compliance officer to easily define and enforce acorporate policy regarding: (i) Data that can be exported externally—thesecurity/compliancy officer can define that certain data elements (e.g.credit card numbers) should be masked before being sent out side of theenterprise (due to PCI-DSS compliancy); (ii) Data that should besecured—although the device provides predefined configuration ofsensitive data elements for different SaaS applications, thesecurity/compliancy officer can modified it to tailor it to theenterprise security policy.

The described methods and devices can enable CXO to use the SaaS modelto reduce costs by using SaaS application without exposing confidentialdata and as a result without risking privacy regulations. They allowjurisdiction definition and simplify/reduce audit requirements. Theyreduce recurring compliance audit costs of SaaS solutions, and reducethe need for auditing the SaaS provider.

In case of any SaaS related security breach, no notification will berequired to customers according various regulations (e.g. CA SB1386(2003)), since the sensitive and privacy related data was encrypted.

The methods and device may allow monitoring and Audit SaaS usage andSLA, may enable monitoring of SaaS applications usage by the enterprise,may enable enforcement of enterprise specific access control policy onSaaS usage by users, can detect abnormal usage of SaaS applications andmay monitor SaaS application availability and response time, can enhancethe attractiveness of SaaS applications by overcoming one of the majorprospects' inhibitor which is the privacy and confidentiality of thedata, can reduce liability in case of data exposure—since the sensitiveinformation is encrypted even if the information leak that is no damage.The suggested encryption, even if it does not eliminate any othersecurity measured that should be taken by the enterprise, it is stillthe last defense in case all the other defense layers have failed.

The methods and devices described herein illustrate some of the benefitsof using the sort and search preserved encryption method for SaaSapplication scenarios. However, there are various additional businessapplications that can benefits from it, such as cloud computing andinternal usage of the device within the enterprise to protect the datastored within the organization storage and/or database from anyunauthorized use.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a security module 10 according to anembodiment of the invention.

It is noted that the security module 10 can include software components,hardware components and the like. The security module 10 or one of moreof its components (hardware, software or a combination thereof) can beregarded as a second computerized entity, and can be a device. A firstcomputerized entity can be arranged to utilize the random tokensgenerated by the security module 10. The first computerized entity canbe a SaaS application, a server running the SaaS application and thelike.

The security module 10 can have at least one input 11 and at least oneoutput 13. These inputs and outputs can represent physical communicationlinks, virtual communication links or a combination thereof.

The input 11 can receive text and the output 13 can output encryptedtext. The received text can include plaintext symbols while theencrypted text can include random tokens representative of some of thereceived plaintext symbols. The encrypted text can include a combinationof plaintext symbols and random tokens—thus only a part of the receivedtext can be encrypted.

The security module 10 includes a communication module 12 that isarranged to receive data elements and can output data elements andrandom tokens. The communication module 12 can include one or moreproxies such as but not limited to HTTP proxy, SMTP proxy, pop3 proxy orany other proxies.

The communication module 12 is coupled to a sensitivity module 14 thatmay select plaintext symbols to be encrypted and send these plaintextsymbols to an encryption module 16. The sensitivity module 14 canreceive instructions relating to which fields of the text to encrypt.

The sensitivity module 14 may be integral or otherwise functionallyassociated with the encryption module 16. The sensitivity module 14 mayestimate or determine (based on a pre defined security policy) thesensitivity level of some given data (i.e. symbol or group of symbols)and may indicate to the encryption module 16 whether or not to encryptthe given data-element/symbol(s) and how the encrypt the given dataelement/symbol. The higher the sensitivity level of the given data, themore likely it will be encrypted. The sensitivity module 14 may beadapted to detect and classify the sensitivity level of some or allsymbols or groups of symbols of a data file/document or applicationrequest/transaction (for example peoples' names, addresses, accountinformation, etc.) based the symbol(s) data format or othercharacteristics. According to yet further embodiments of the presentinvention, there may be provided templates or configuration filesassociated with each type of data file/documents or application'smessages which templates of configuration files may indicate to thesensitivity module 14 data/symbol characteristics or parameters ofdata/symbols found in the file/document or application's messages typeto be classified as sensitive.

According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, anencryption module's decision as to whether or not to encrypt a givendata/symbol may be influenced by an indication (e.g. user defined) of asecurity level for the entire file or document or application message(e.g. request/transaction). Accordingly, the same data/symbol consideredsensitive and in need of encryption when found in a document classifiedas having a high security level may be considered non-sensitive, andthus not encrypted, when found in a document having a lower indicatedsecurity level.

The encryption module 16 may perform the search and sort preserveencryption to provide random tokens. The random tokens and plaintextsymbols (that were not selected to be encrypted by the encryption module16) can be sent by the communication module 12 to a first computerizedentity such as a SaaS server.

The encryption module 16 may perform one or more encryption operationssuch as but not limited to the encryption methods illustrated in thefollowing figures. For example, the encryption module 16 can perform thesymbol based encryption illustrated in the following figures as well asother encryptions such as standard encryption based on, for example, onNIST—standard algorithms and best practices and the like. The encryptionmodule 16 can perform case preserving encryption (using case typeinformation), case sensitive encryption (i.e. encrypting the plain textsymbol as it is), search enabled encryption, sort and search enabledencryption, standard block encryption algorithms such as AES in CBCmode,—wherein non-limiting of such encryption methods are illustrated inthe following figures.

The encryption module 16 can be used to encrypt only selected dataelements. The data elements may be selected based on their sensitivity.The sensitivity can reflect a security level of a data element, damagethat may result from an exposure of the data element, value of the dataelement and the like. The sensitivity can be determined in advance, becalculated by applying a function, can be updated over time, and thelike.

FIG. 1 also illustrates an encryption dictionary (encryption dictionary)15 that can be accessed by the encryption module 16.

Either one of the sensitivity module 14 or the communication module 12can be familiar with (“understand”) the application protocol, in orderto extract and allow the sensitivity module to detect which plaintextsymbols to send to the encryption module.

The security module 10 can be used in various scenarios, including butnot limited to SaaS providers that should not be aware to the plaintextsymbols that were encrypted.

The sensitivity module 14 (or another module such as a communicationmodule 12) may intercept application request messages that are sent toan application server, and send selected plaintext symbols to theencryption module 16, if these plaintext symbols are sensitive enough.

The encryption module 16 may encrypt the plaintext symbols selected bythe sensitivity module 14 before they are sent to a SaaS provider.

As a result—sensitive data elements are encrypted before being sent to,processed by and stored in the SaaS application database, while the SaaSapplication functionality is preserved, and without any need to changethe SaaS application.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the encryptionmodule 16, and other associated components (such as softwarecomponents), may be implemented anywhere along a data file or documentgeneration/storage chain, or the route from the end user device (e.g.browser) to the (SaaS) application server.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the encryption module 16may be integral or otherwise functionally associated with acomputational platform (e.g. plug-in or add-on) on which an applicationused to generate documents (e.g. MS Word) runs. When the document issaved by the application, it may be automatically symbol based encryptedby the encryption module as part of the saving process.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, some or all ofthe functionality of the encryption module 16 may be executed using aremovable peripheral (e.g. USB device), where the peripheral may includedata storage and encryption logic.

According to some embodiments, the encryption module 16 as well as thesensitivity detection module 14 may be integral or otherwisefunctionally associated with an organization's document repository (e.g.document management system running on an organization's server), suchthat all documents stored on the repository are encrypted as they enterthe repository.

According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, theencryption module 16 may be integral or otherwise functionallyassociated with an organizational gateway to an external documentrepository (e.g. document management system running on a third partyserver) provided by a document repository services provider (e.g.Google, Iron Mountain, etc.)

According to embodiments of the present invention where the encryptionmodule 16 is associated with either a data server or with a gateway toan external application server (e.g. a SaaS application server), theencryption module 16 may be functionally associated with a communicationmodule 12 that is adapted to receive and send network data traffic.

The communication module 12 may include networking hardware and networkprotocol logic (e.g. TCP/IP stack) adapted to receive and transmit datausing any network standard known today or to be devised in the future.

As part of the encryption module's operation, the encryption module 16may utilize an encryption dictionary such as an encryption dictionarythat maps plaintext symbols to random tokens. It is noted that theencryption module 16 may encrypt only a portion (and even only a smallportion) of a text so that random tokens as well as plaintext symbolscan be sent to a computerized entity that is unaware to the plaintextsymbols that were encrypted and/or replaced by random tokens.

According to embodiments, the random token may have no meaningwhatsoever—thus the random token does not provide a meaningless phraseor expression.

According to an embodiment of the invention the encryption module 16applies an search and sort preserving encryption that is orderpreserving in the sense that the order of plaintext symbols is the sameto the order of the random token that represent these plaintext symbols.

According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, each userand/or organization may be associated with a different and substantiallyunique encryption dictionary.

The encryption dictionary 15 may be a dynamically updatable table andmay be updated during operation. For example, when a user/organizationstarts using an encryption module 16 according to some embodiments ofthe present invention, the encryption dictionary 15 for the givenuser/organization may include mappings for a set of symbols likely to befound (e.g. statistically often used) within documents used by theuser/organization.

When during operation, however, the encryption module 16 receives a newplaintext symbol that is not currently included in the encryptiondictionary the encryption module 16 can update the encryption dictionary15 by adding a random token that represents the new plaintext symbolwhile preserving the order of the random tokens. A non-limiting exampleof such an update is provided in FIG. 7.

If a document to be encrypted includes a plaintext symbol that does nothave a corresponding mapping entry in the encryption dictionary 15, thenthe encryption module 16 or another associated software component maygenerate (for example, by using a random symbol generator) acorresponding cipher entry (a new mapping between the new plaintextsymbol and a new random token) and may update the encryption dictionary15 accordingly. Thus, a encryption dictionary 15 used by a user ororganization may grow as more traffic is passing through the device. Theencryption dictionary 15 may be stored within a database that can bepart of a device and/or the system that implements the invention.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, utilizing aencryption dictionary 15 may result in a sort and search preservedencryption of some or all of a document's encrypted data/symbols.Accordingly, textual search and sort functionality of a remote service,server and/or application based, is preserved and can be applied to therandom tokens. Thus, the remote service, server and/or application cansort the random tokens, and when the sorted random tokens are returnedto the user and the random tokens are converted into their plaintextsymbols the result is a sorted plaintext symbols. In addition, adocument search engine or utility according to the present invention mayscan through a set of documents encrypted according to embodiments ofthe present invention and may search for one or more search terms byrunning the search query via the encryption module that converts thesearch terms (i.e. symbols) to their corresponding random tokens usingthe same encryption dictionary as used to encrypt the documents, andthen the first computerized entity can perform the search query on thedocuments based on the encrypted/converted search symbols.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, there may beprovided a decryption module 18 that may reverse the operation of theencryption module 16. FIG. 1 illustrates the decryption module 18 asbeing included in the security module 10 but this is not necessarily soand the encryption and the decryption can be executed by multipledistinct computerized entities.

Decryption module 18 can be adapted to use either one of the encryptiondictionary 15 or a reverse encryption dictionary 17. It can use eitherone of these data structures when decrypting files/documents that werepreviously encrypted according to some embodiments of the presentinvention.

The decryption module 18 associated with a given encryption module 16may be adapted to either use a decryption dictionary 17 that can be aninverse encryption dictionary relative to the encryption dictionary 15used by the encryption module 16 or to perform a reverse lookup on thesame encryption dictionary 15 as the one used by the encryption module16. However, if the encryption and decryption modules are usingdifferent encryption dictionaries then the dictionaries used forencryption and decryption have to be synchronized.

Upon retrieval of the encrypted data, and/or data which is the result ofa manipulation of the encrypted data by the remote service, serverand/or application, the decryption module 18 may be adapted to decryptthe one or more random tokens by utilizing the inverse of the encryptiondictionary 16 that was used for the encryption which they are a resultof, into their corresponding ‘clear’ symbols prior tooutput/presentation to the user. The decryption module 18 may scan thereturned text to detect the encrypted elements included in that text andreplace them with their corresponding plaintext elements.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, theencryption/decryption modules 16 and 18 may be functionally associatedwith applications including word processing applications, accountingapplications, email applications, spread sheet applications, CRMapplications, etc. According to further embodiments of the presentinvention, the encryption/decryption modules 16 and 18 may befunctionally associated with “Software as a Service” applicationsprovided by third parties over the internet or other distributed datanetworks.

By exercising the symbol based encryption illustrated in any of thefollowing methods as well as the symbol based decryption externalresources such as SaaS applications and cloud computing services can beused while ensuring the confidentiality and privacy of theuser/corporate sensitive data.

The mentioned above security module 10 is capable of applying sort andsearch preserved encryption methods that may enable a SaaS applicationto sort the encrypted data elements as well as to search the encrypteddata elements although the data elements are encrypted. In addition, ourinnovation enables to detect and decrypt encrypted elements on variousformats of documents as well as in various protocols (e.g. SMTP, HTTP)in order to ensure transparent functionality to the user. This enablesthe users of such a technology to maintain their customers' privacy,without the need to change the SaaS application.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method 200 for generating an encryption dictionary,according to an embodiment of the invention.

The encryption dictionary includes a mapping between multiple plaintextsymbols and random tokens that represent the multiple plaintext symbolsMethod 200 may start by stage 210 of generating a random value for eachplaintext symbol of multiple plaintext symbols.

Stage 210 may include applying a random or a pseudo-random process.Random values RV(1)-RV(n) are calculated for plaintext symbolsPS(1)-PS(n).

The plaintext symbols can be, for example, private names such as Bob,John, Rob and Helen. After being sorted these private names are orderedaccordingly: Bob, Helen, John and Rob. Four random values RV(1)-RV(4)are calculated for these four names.

The plaintext symbols may include letters, numbers or a combinationthereof. The random values can be numerical values.

Stage 210 may be followed by stage 220 of calculating, using a monotonicfunction such as a increasing monotonic function, a random token foreach plaintext symbol based on a random value of the plaintext symboland on random values of other plaintext symbols that have a lowerlexicographic value than the plaintext symbol. Thus, assuming thatPS(l)-PS(n) are lexicographically ordered, then the k'th random value (kranges between 1 and n) is responsive to the first random value till(k)'th random value. For example the k'th random value is an outcome ofa monotonic function that is applied on the first till k'th randomvalues. The monotonic function can also be a decreasing monotonicfunction—but in this case the order may be reversed and an additionalorder reversing operation may be applied.

According to an embodiment of the invention stage 220 includescalculating the random token (RT) of a plaintext symbol by summing therandom values of other plaintext symbols that have a lower lexicographicvalue than the plaintext symbol. Thus RT(k)=SUM (RV(l) . . . RV(k)), foreach value of k between 1 and n.

For example, the random token RT(1) of Bob will equal RV(l), the randomtoken of Helen RT(2) will equal RV(l)+RV(2), the random token of JohnRT(3) will equal RV(1)+RV(2)+RV(3), and the random token RT(4) of Robwill equal RV(1)+RV(2)+RV(3)+RV(4).

According to another embodiment of the invention stage 220 may includecalculating the random token of the plaintext symbol by applying aweighted sum of the random values of other plaintext symbols that have alower lexicographic value than the plaintext symbol.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method 300 for generating an encryption dictionary,according to an embodiment of the invention.

Method 300 of FIG. 3 differs from method 200 of FIG. 2 by calculating,for at least one plaintext symbol, multiple random tokens. Thus—one ormore other plaintext symbols can have multiple random tokens each.Multiple random tokens can be calculated for plaintext symbols that aremore popular than other plaintext symbols, or are more popular that apopularity threshold, although the selection can be done according toany other criterion.

The popularity can be monitored, can be evaluated over time, and canrepresent statistics about the usage of plaintext symbols. Thepopularity can be evaluated per language, per application, per user, andthe like.

Method 300 may start by stage 305 of determining a number of randomtokens to generate for each plaintext symbol out of multiple plaintextsymbols. For one or more plaintext symbols this number exceeds one.Thus, stage 305 can include selecting plaintext symbols that theirpopularity exceeds a threshold. For example, it may be assumed that Johnis very popular and that two random tokens should be generated forJohn—RT(4) and RT(5).

Stage 305 may be followed by stage 310 of generating a random value foreach plaintext symbol of multiple plaintext symbols. Stage 310 mayinclude applying a random or a pseudo-random process. Random valuesRV(l)-RV(m) are calculated for plaintext symbols PS(l)-PS(n). If asingle random value is calculated per each plaintext symbol then nequals m. If, one or more plaintext symbol is associated with multiplerandom tokens then m>n. Referring to the example above n=4 and m=5 asJohn is allocated with two random tokens.

Stage 310 may be followed by stage 320 of calculating, using a monotonicfunction, at least one random token for each plaintext symbol based on arandom value of the plaintext symbol and on random values of otherplaintext symbols that have a lower lexicographic value than theplaintext symbol. Stage 320 may include applying a monotonic increasingfunction.

If, for example a group of multiple random values are generated per acertain plaintext symbol then different random values of the group areresponsive to the random values of plaintext symbols that precede thatcertain plaintext symbol. The values of random values of the group canalso be affected by each other.

The calculating can include summing, applying a weighted sum and thelike.

Stage 320 may include calculating multiple random tokens for a singleplaintext symbol so that values of the random tokens of other plaintextsymbols are outside a range that is span by values of the multiplerandom tokens of the single plaintext symbol.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 for updating an encryption dictionaryaccording to an embodiment of the invention.

Method 400 can start by stage 410 of receiving a new plaintext symbolthat is not included in an encryption dictionary. The encryptiondictionary may be generated by anyone of methods 200, 300, or acombination of one or more of these methods.

The new plaintext symbol can be received at any time after theencryption dictionary is generated. It is noted that the encryptiondictionary can also be updated by removing unused plaintext symbols butthis is not necessarily so.

Stage 410 may be followed by stage 420 finding a first plaintext symbolthat belongs to the encryption dictionary and has a nearest smallerlexicographic value to a lexicographic value of the new plaintext symboland of finding a second plaintext symbol that belongs to the encryptiondictionary and has a nearest larger lexicographic value to thelexicographic value of the new plaintext symbol.

Stage 420 may be followed by stage 430 of assigning to the new plaintextsymbol a new random token that has a new value that is between values ofthe random tokens of the first and second plaintext symbols.

Stage 430 may include randomly selecting the new value of the randomtoken within a range of numbers that is limited by values of the randomtokens of the first and second plaintext symbols.

Stage 430 may include assigning the new random token by adding a suffixto the random token of first plaintext symbol. The addition of a suffix(least significant bits) does not change the location of the new randomtoken—as lexicographic sort operation operate from the most significantbit towards the least significant bits (from left to right).

According to an embodiment of the invention at least one plaintextsymbol may be represented by a group of random tokens. If, for example,it is desired that a new random token will not be located within a spacethat is span by the group of random tokens, then the selection of thefirst and second plaintext symbols should be responsive to the values ofrandom tokens of the group. For example—if the new random token shouldhave a value that is greater than all the random tokens of the groupthen the biggest random token of the group should be taken into accountwhen calculating the value of the new random token. Yet for anotherexample—if the new random token should have a value that is lower thanall the random tokens of the group then the lowest random token of thegroup should be taken into account when calculating the value of the newrandom token.

Accordingly, if the first plaintext symbol is represented by the groupof random tokens than the new random token should have a value that ishigher than the value of the highest random token of the group. If thesecond plaintext symbol is represented by the group of random tokensthan the new random token should have a value that is lower than thevalue of the lowest random token of the group. Thus, as the limits forchoosing a new token we are taking in this case by the highest randomvalue that represent the plaintext symbol that has the nearest smallerlexicographic value to lexicographic value of the new plaintext valueand the lowest random value that represent the nearest largerlexicographic value to the lexicographic value of the new plaintextsymbol.

Information about the allocation of more than a single random token perplaintext symbol (or information about the number of random tokens perplaintext symbols) can be included in the encryption table or in anotherdata structure.

FIG. 5 illustrates method 500 for symbol based encryption according toan embodiment of the invention.

Method 500 starts by stage 510 of receiving or generating an encryptiondictionary. The encryption dictionary can be generated by any method ofmethods 200-300 and can be updated by method 400. The encryptiondictionary is generated or received by a second computerized entity.

It is noted that an encryption dictionary can be generated per user, perapplication, per organization and the like. For simplicity ofexplanation the following example refers to a single encryptiondictionary.

Stage 510 may be followed by stage 520 of receiving, by an encryptionmodule, a group of plaintext symbols to be encrypted. Stage 520 may bepreceded by a stage (not shown) of selecting which plaintext symbol toencrypt, said selection can be executed by a sensitivity module.

Stage 520 may be followed by stage 530 of encrypting, by the encryptionmodule, the group of plaintext symbols by using the encryptiondictionary to provide a group of random tokens. Stage 530 can includeselecting which encryption dictionary to use, whether to perform anorder preserving encryption or not.

Stage 530 may be followed by stage 540 of providing the group of randomtokens to a first computerized entity that differs from the secondcomputerized entity. Stage 540 may also include providing to the firstcomputerized entity at least one plaintext symbols that was notencrypted. It is noted that a text can be received by the firstcomputerized entity while most of the text is not encrypted—for examplea file can be provided wherein only 5 percent of the file is encrypted.It is noted that most of the file and even the entire file can beencrypted.

Stage 540 may be followed by stage 550 of processing encrypted text thatincludes the group of random tokens and the at least one plaintextsymbol. The processing can be executed by the first computerized entityand may include sorting, searching and the like. The sorting orsearching can be case sensitive or case insensitive.

It is noted that decryption methods can be provided. Each decryptionmethod reverses the operation of an encryption method. Thus, casesensitive encryption may be followed by case sensitive decryption, butthis is not necessarily so.

Stage 530 may include detecting predefined patterns that should beencrypted according to predefined encryption schemes. For example, stage530 may include detecting an email address that comprises two plaintextstrings that are separated by an at sign (@) and generating an encryptedemail address that comprises two random tokens that are separated by anat sign—“RT(q)@RT(j)”.

Stage 530 may include detecting an email address that includes twoplaintext strings that are separated by an at sign and converting it toan encrypted email address that includes two random tokens that may beseparated by a symbol and are followed by an at sign, wherein the atsign is followed by a predefined domain name that identifies acomputerized entity that IS arranged to assist m decrypting theencrypted email address (RT(q).RT(j))@predefined_domain_name).

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate a method 600 for symbol based encryption,according to an embodiment of the invention.

Method 600 starts by stage 610 of receiving or generating an encryptiondictionary. The encryption dictionary can be generated by any method ofmethods 200-300 and can be updated by method 400. The encryptiondictionary is generated or received by a second computerized entity.

Stage 610 may be followed by stage 620 of receiving, by an encryptionmodule, a group of plaintext symbols to be encrypted. Stage 620 may bepreceded by a stage (not shown) of selecting which plaintext symbol toencrypt, said selection can be executed by a sensitivity module.

Stage 620 may be followed by stage 630 of generating letter caseinformation relating to multiple plaintext symbols. For example—for eachone of Bob, Helen, John and Rob the case letter information willindicate that only the first letter is an upper case letter. Thus fourvectors can be generated: (1,0,0), (1,0,0,0,0), (1,0,0,0) and (1,0,0).

Stage 630 may be followed by stage 640 of converting the multipleplaintext symbols to a format that is case insensitive. Stage 640 caninclude converting all upper case letters to lower case letters orconverting all lower case letters to upper case letters. It is assumed,for convenience of explanation that all letters are converted to lowercase letters so that stage 640 provides lower case plaintext symbols.For example—Bob, Helen, John and Rob can be converted to bob, helen,john and rob.

Stage 640 may be followed by stage 666 of encrypting, by the encryptionmodule, the group of plaintext symbols by using the encryptiondictionary to provide a group of random tokens. Stage 666 can includeselecting which encryption dictionary to use, whether to perform anorder preserving encryption or not.

Stage 666 may be followed by stage 670 of encoding the random tokens (ormore specifically the numerical value of the random token) by letters.The encoding can be case insensitive—so that the random tokens arerepresented by letters of the same case.

Although not shown in FIG. 6, stage 670 (or 660) may be followed bystage 540 and, additionally or alternatively, stage 550 of method 500.

Stage 670 is followed by stage 780 of converting the encoded randomtokens to case sensitive random tokens by using the case letterinformation.

Stage 780 can be followed by stage 540 and, additionally oralternatively, stage 550 of method 500.

It is noted that either one of the symbol based encryption methods 500,600 and 700 can be executed in addition to other encryption methods.Accordingly, each method can be preceded (or may include) a stage ofselecting which encryption scheme to select. FIG. 8 illustrates asecurity module 800 that can elect between different types of encryptionsuch as symbol based encryption (such as sort and search enabledencryption and search enabled encryption) as well as standard encryptionusing NIST standard algorithms, file encryption using AES in CBC modeand format preserving encryption, and other encryption engines.

FIG. 8 illustrates a security module 800 according to an embodiment ofthe invention.

Security module 800 includes:

-   -   a. A communication module 801 that includes a HTTP proxy Apache        802, SMTP proxy & MTA 804, a Pop3 Proxy 806. It is noted that        other proxies can provided instead or in addition to these        proxies;    -   b. An application programming interface 820;    -   c. An administration policy management 830 that determines which        encryption process to elect and which data elements to encrypt        (thus it may have a sensitivity module functionality); and    -   d. Encryption modules (collectively denoted 840) such as sort        and search enabled encryption module 841, search enabled        encryption module 843, standard encryption module using NIST        standard algorithms 845, file encryption module using AES in CBC        mode 847 and format preserving encryption module 849.

Security module 800 may have the functionality of security module 10. Itmay perform either one of the encryptions method illustrated above. Theadministration policy management 830 may determine when to apply eachencryption method.

FIGS. 9-11 illustrate security modules 10 and their environmentsaccording to various embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 9-11 illustrates three optional locations of security module 10.

A corporate facility may host multiple applications such as web browsers910 and 911, SaaS integration platform 912, mail transfer agent 913, allof which should access the Internet 901 via a first firewall 901.

A SaaS application facility may include a SaaS application server 904that is coupled to the Internet 902 via a second firewall 903.

FIG. 9 illustrates security module 10 and its environment 900. Thesecurity module 10 is connected before the first firewall 901. It shouldbe noted that is this deployment option the enterprise has the greatestcontrol on the data.

FIG. 10 illustrates security module 10 and its environment 1000. FIG. 10illustrates the security module 10 as being coupled between the firstand second firewalls 901 and 903 as a service in the cloud.

FIG. 11 illustrates security module 10 and its environment 1100. FIG. 11illustrates the security module 10 as being connected between the secondfirewall 903 and the SaaS application server 904.

FIGS. 12 and 13 illustrate graphic user interfaces 1200 and 1300according to an embodiment of the invention.

The GUI 1200 displays multiple fields 1202 and 1204 of a form that maybe displayed (or filled in) by a SaaS application. The content of someof the fields (1202) should be encrypted—and these fields can be markedby using the GUI 1200. These fields 1202 can include, for example, anaddress billing field, a shipping address field, an account name field,a phone number, fax number and website fields. Other fields (1204)should not be encrypted—they may include a total won opportunitiesfield, a satisfaction indicator field and the like. The GUI can alsoallow to define which type of encryption should be applied, andadditionally or alternatively—which type of encoding (if applied) shouldbe applied. The random tokens are denoted RT(1)-RT(9). A non-limitingexample of a random token can be NSPREF1abhaglemkncaiiehNSSUF1.

GUI 1300 displays the same fields, but fields 1402 are random tokensthat replace fields 1202. Thus, address billing field, a shippingaddress field, an account name field, a phone number, fax number andwebsite fields are filled with random tokens. Other fields (1404) suchas a total won opportunities field and a satisfaction indicator fieldinclude plaintext symbols.

Either one of the mentioned above methods can be executed by a processorthat may executed instructions (code) stored in non-transitory computerreadable medium.

A non-transitory computer readable medium can be provided that storesinstructions for: generating a random value for each plaintext symbol ofmultiple plaintext symbols; and calculating, using a monotonic function,a random token for each plaintext symbol based on a random value of theplaintext symbol and on random values of other plaintext symbols thathave a lower lexicographic value than the plaintext symbol; wherein theencryption dictionary comprises a mapping between the multiple plaintextsymbols and random values of the multiple plaintext symbols.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forcalculating the random token of plaintext symbol by summing the randomvalues of other plaintext symbols that have a lower lexicographic valuethan the plaintext symbol.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forcalculating the random token of the plaintext symbol by applying aweighted sum of the random values of other plaintext symbols that have alower lexicographic value than the plaintext symbol.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forcalculating multiple random tokens for a single plaintext symbol.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forcalculating multiple random tokens for a single plaintext symbol thathas a popularity level that exceeds a predefined popularity level.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forcalculating multiple random tokens for the single plaintext symbol sothat values of random tokens of other plaintext symbols are outside arange that is span by values of the multiple random tokens of the singleplaintext symbol.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions for:receiving a new plaintext symbol that is not included in the encryptiondictionary; finding a first plaintext symbol that belongs to theencryption dictionary and has a nearest smaller lexicographic value to alexicographic value of the new plaintext symbol; finding a secondplaintext symbol that belongs to the encryption dictionary and has anearest larger lexicographic value to the lexicographic value of the newplaintext symbol; and assigning to the new plaintext symbol a new randomtoken that has a new value that is between values of the random tokensof the first and second plaintext symbols.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forrandomly selecting the new value of the random token within a range ofnumbers that is limited by values of the random tokens of the first andsecond plaintext symbols.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forassigning the new random token by adding a suffix to the random token offirst plaintext symbol.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forselecting the multiple plaintext symbols.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forencoding a numerical value of each random token to an alphabetic value.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forencoding the numerical value of each random token to a sequence of smallcase letters.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forencoding the numerical value of each random token to a sequence ofArmenian letters.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions for:

receiving a group of plaintext symbols to be encrypted; encrypting by asecond computerized entity plaintext symbols of the group of plaintextsymbols by using the encryption dictionary to provide a group of randomtokens; and providing the group of random tokens to a first computerizedentity that differs from the second computerized entity.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions for:receiving text; selecting out of the text the group of plaintext symbolsto be encrypted; and selecting at least one plaintext symbols to beprovided to the first computerized entity without being encrypted.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forperforming sorting and search operations by the first computerizedentity on the group of random tokens.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions fordetecting an email address that comprises two plaintext strings that areseparated by an at sign; and generating an encrypted email address thatcomprises two random tokens that are separated by an at sign.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions fordetecting an email address that comprises two plaintext strings that areseparated by an at sign; and generating an encrypted email address thatcomprises two random tokens that are followed by an at sign, wherein theat sign is followed by a predefined domain name that identifies acomputerized entity that is arranged to assist in decrypting theencrypted email address.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions fordecrypting the encrypted email address and sending an email message thatcomprises the email address to a destination defined by the emailaddress.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forgenerating letter case information relating to the group of plaintextsymbols to be encrypted.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forcomprising converting each upper case letter of the group of plaintextsymbols to be encrypted to a lower case letter to provide lower caseplaintext symbols; and calculating the random value for each lower caseplaintext symbol.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forconverting each lower case letter of the group of plaintext symbols tobe encrypted to an upper case letter to provide upper case plaintextsymbols; and calculating the random value for each upper case plaintextsymbol.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forgenerating random tokens in response to the letter case information.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forgenerating at least one additional dictionary for at least one other setof plaintext symbols.

The non-transitory computer readable medium can store instructions forgenerating at least one additional dictionary for at least one other setof plaintext symbols; wherein different dictionaries are allocated fordifferent applications or for different users.

A non-transitory computer readable medium can be provided that can storeinstructions for: receiving, by a first computerized entity and over acommunication network, text that comprises multiple random tokens and aplurality of plaintext symbols; wherein the multiple random tokens aregenerated by a second computerized entity; wherein a value of eachrandom token that represents a plaintext symbol is responsive to valuesof random tokens that represents plaintext symbols that have a lowerlexicographic value than the plaintext symbol; and processing the textby the first computerized entity.

The processing is selected from a group consisting of sorting andsearching.

The first computerized entity supports a software as a serviceapplication.

The first computerized entity supports a data base application.

While certain features of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, andequivalents will now occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. It is,therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended tocover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spiritof the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system to provide sorting of encrypted datawithin a software as a service (SaaS) environment, the systemcomprising: symbol based encryption module to encrypt data on a persymbol basis and to provide sort and search preserving encryption thatallows other modules to sort tokens and to search for tokens; a databasesystem coupled with the symbol based encryption module to storeencrypted tokens that have been encrypted by the symbol based encryptionmodule, the database system to allow access to the encrypted tokensthrough the SaaS environment.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the SaaSenvironment comprises a customer relationship management (CRM)environment.
 3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a decryptionmodule that to reverse the operation of an encryption module in responseto detecting encrypted element(s) in a web page returned by aweb-application.
 4. The system of claim 3 wherein the web-applicationcomprises a SaaS application.
 5. The system of claim 3 wherein the webpage comprises a non-encrypted/plain-text response page with informationto be presented in plaintext.
 6. The system of claim 1 wherein thesymbol based encryption module replaces each symbol a random token,wherein a lexicographic order between the random tokens and the symbolsthey replace is preserved.
 7. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumhaving stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: encrypt data on a persymbol basis, with a symbol based encryption module; provide sort andsearch preserving encryption, with the symbol based encryption module,that allows other modules to sort tokens and to search for tokens;store, in a database system coupled with the symbol based encryptionmodule, encrypted tokens that have been encrypted by the symbol basedencryption module; allow access to the encrypted tokens through asoftware as a service (SaaS) environment.
 8. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 7 wherein the SaaS environmentcomprises a customer relationship management (CRM) environment.
 9. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 further comprisinginstructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause adecryption module to reverse the operation of an encryption module inresponse to detecting encrypted element(s) in a web page returned by aweb-application.
 10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 9 wherein the web-application comprises a SaaS application. 11.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the webpage comprises a non-encrypted/plain-text response page with informationto be presented in plaintext.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 7 wherein the symbol based encryption module replaceseach symbol a random token, wherein a lexicographic order between therandom tokens and the symbols they replace is preserved.
 13. A methodfor sorting encrypted data within a software as a service (SaaS)environment, the method comprising: encrypting data on a per symbolbasis, with a symbol based encryption module; providing sort and searchpreserving encryption, with the symbol based encryption module, thatallows other modules to sort tokens and to search for tokens; storing,in a database system coupled with the symbol based encryption module,encrypted tokens that have been encrypted by the symbol based encryptionmodule; allowing access to the encrypted tokens through the SaaSenvironment.
 14. The method of claim 13 wherein the SaaS environmentcomprises a customer relationship management (CRM) environment.
 15. Themethod of claim 13 further comprising instructions that, when executedby the one or more processors, cause a decryption module to reverse theoperation of an encryption module in response to detecting encryptedelement(s) in a web page returned by a web-application.
 16. The methodof claim 15 wherein the web-application comprises a SaaS application.17. The method of claim 15 wherein the web page comprises anon-encrypted/plain-text response page with information to be presentedin plaintext.
 18. The method of claim 13 wherein the symbol basedencryption module replaces each symbol a random token, wherein alexicographic order between the random tokens and the symbols theyreplace is preserved.